I suspect the only entity that’s got bashed around as much in recent times as the one-day international is the villain in the Hindi film (who, intriguingly, often gets flattened by a size zero heroine as well!). Reading some of the stuff you would have thought we were talking of crossbows and log tables and bats with linseed oil! So are we at a tipping point, is the gathering momentum weighty enough or is there too much fluff in it, are we merely filling newspaper space because we have to?

I’d rather wait and see what the Champions’ Trophy, another much maligned format that is going through a makeover, throws up. With just eight teams, well, seven and a nationwide poll to find people who can bat and bowl making up the eighth, it offers much by way of competition. Sambit Bal, the editor of Cricinfo is right. You need to look at things in a certain context and the Champions’ Trophy in this format provides that context. It separates it from the otherwise wild mushrooming of one-day internationals.

Shorn of their context, one-day games are a weaker offering. Put in the right ambience, they could be thrilling. It is a bit like the great violinist being ignored when he plays outside a subway station but being flattered with expensive tickets and applause when he plays in a theatre. Before writing an obituary we need to give the patient a good shot at survival.

Having said that though the debate has thrown up a few interesting thoughts. Matthew Hayden thinks the middle overs, widely seen as the weak link, are actually the most interesting since they test a player’s skills greatly. And Peter Roebuck thinks we bring the problem onto ourselves by setting deep, defensive fields and making the single easy and attractive in the middle overs. It is an argument worth looking at. Why don’t captains attack a bit more after the power plays are over? In most games fielders are pushed back as soon as allowable; it’s as predictable as people responding to a fire alarm or a commentator throwing to a break! The moment you let ordinary bowlers bowl to ordinary fields, you get ordinary cricket. That is why the new power play rules are so good. They force captains to keep the fielders in, perforce then to attack. So here’s another theory. Attacking captains will bring the zing back into one-day cricket.

... contd.